With all the different seasonal fishing opportunities I experience in an average year, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite. However, we’re heading into a season that is probably the most enjoyable for anglers of all skill levels – the peak of the southern spawn.
I know many of the Florida and Texas fish have already spawned, but throughout much of the south, there are still plenty of fish that haven’t. Water temperature has a lot to do with this, but so do moon phases.
I’m thinking the full moon on April 4 is going to trigger the major spawning wave in the south. I’m sure there will still be more fish that will move up even later in the spring; but I’ve been watching the conditions and this moon will be the one that kicks things off.
The cool thing with this time of year is that it can be a numbers deal and you could potentially catch the fish of your lifetime. A big percentage of the fish go shallow, so that brings them within reach for just about any angler.
Also, a lot of these fish are fresh. They’ve been out deep during the winter, they haven’t been fished for and when they move up, they’re in the mood to eat.
You can have a guy fishing off the bank or a guy trolling for sand bass (white bass) and either one might catch a 10-pound largemouth.
It’s an exciting time of the year because of the potential.
Around my home in Oklahoma, it’s going to be a good spawn. We’ve had a cold winter and the water temperature has been steadily rising.
The key is those overnight temperatures. You can have warm days, but if the nights are cold, it drops that water temperature and it takes a while for it to warm back up during the day.
But when we start getting 62-64 degrees overnight and those temperatures coincide with a full moon; that’s what is going to make it happen.
The temperature trends are getting right and when we get this next full moon it’s going to be crazy.
I think everybody’s feeling this spring excitement. It’s just a cool time of year.
You go into town and you meet pontoon boats, you meet flat bottom boats, you’re meeting bass boats.
With gas prices being a little more affordable, that’s helping.
You want to pay attention to your water temperature this time. You want that 62- to 65-degree water so you can get in on some of those spawning fish.
You always note in the back of your mind the places that are colder and once the spawn starts slowing down where you’ve been fishing, then you go back to where that water was colder. You’ll get right back into that 62-65 range, and it keeps you in the spawning action.
For example, on Lake Ten Killer right now the upper third of the lake is warm – it’s like 50-62. The midsection is 56-58 and the lower section is 52-55. So what I’ll do is fish the upper third and once they stop spawning, I’ll move down to midsection and just follow the spawn down the lake.
You can do that on a lot of lakes. Just remember that it usually takes the deepest water on the lake the longest to warm up. You can start in the shallows and work your way down the lake.
Also, it seems like the first spawners will go to the backs of the creeks and the pockets, but then your late fish will spawn a little bit deeper. They’ll go a little bit later because that water has to get warm, so they’ll go a couple of weeks later.
Besides that, I look a lot for the pockets that catch the south wind because they warm up faster. It also blows a lot of bait into the area.
Those fish will chase around and feed a lot before they spawn, so I’ll pay attention to what the wind is doing the days before. If you get two days of consistent wind, those areas that catch the south wind will be loaded with bait.
I’m also going to look for areas with habitat for all stages of the spawn. I want good prespawn staging areas with shallow cover like water willow, logs or stumps, spawning flats and deep water close by for the postspawn.
I like to fish stuff that’s moving pretty fast this time of year and just cover a lot of water. I’ll tie on a Bandit 200 crankbait and a Booyah spinnerbait and just take off fishing.
Once I start catching them, I’ll go back through with a 1/2-ounce Booyah flipping jig or a Booyah Bed Bug casting jig – both with a YUM Craw Papi trailer. I might also drag a Carolina rig with a 6-inch YUM Lizard, Christie Critter or a YUM dinger.
The dinger can be awesome for spawning fish. That dead-sticking action is great.
Of course, I try to throw what I think will be most effective, but honestly, it’s not as much about the bait this time of year, but just getting out there.
